404 



KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



done, only by having an open fire-place. The 

 iron pipes attached to portable and other 

 stoves, give out, when heated, so much car- 

 bon, that their use cannot be honestly recom- 

 mended. So finely are the lungs of our 

 migratory birds constructed, that any foul or 

 vitiated air, — more particularly when heated, 

 kills them at once. Their respiratory organs 

 become painfully excited ; their head droops ; 

 the scene is soon over. 



The stove we first adopted, by way of ex- 

 periment, was one of Dr. Arnott's, improved 

 by Jeakes, of Great Russell-street, Bedford- 

 square. Immediately over, and around the 

 stove, were casings of iron ; forming within, 

 by a peculiar arrangement, secured by patent, 

 " air chambers." By this admirable contriv- 

 ance, a plentiful supply of well-warmed, salu- 

 brious air, was continually generated. 



The stove being placed, as we have before 

 intimated, in a small ante-room, we had to 

 " force" the air from the stove into the near- 

 est, or " Warblers'" aviary. This was clone 

 by cutting out a panel in the room, imme- 

 diately contiguous to the stove ; and supply - 

 ing its place by a panel of perforated zinc, or 

 (what has since been invented, and which is 

 much better for the purpose) closely-meshed 

 galvanised wire. Through the interstices of 

 this panel, a current of hot air was always 

 passing inwards. By these means alone, we 

 avoided poisoning the birds by the carbonic 

 acid gas ; which was continually escaping from 

 the heated cast-iron and copper pipes. 



To have had this stove fixed in the room 

 itself would, we hardly need observe, have 

 annihilated every living animal it contained. 

 Therefore we must here repeat, that an open 

 fire-place, connected with a direct chimney, 

 is to be preferred and adopted before all 

 others. 



In the winter season, all draughts must be 

 vigilantly guarded against, and the fire kept 

 at one regulated heat. If the weather be 

 unusually mild, then gradually reduce the 

 heat ; if a sudden frost set in, as gradually 

 increase it. The fire should be made up the 

 very last thing at night, before retiring to 

 rest; and must be looked to very early on the 

 following morning. In removing the ashes, 

 &c, and while sweeping the room, care should 

 be taken to prevent the dust flying about 

 more than is needful. The lungs of the war- 

 blers would inhale it immediately, and it 

 would do them serious injury. 



Whenever the weather is foggy, damp, or 

 more than commonly dreary, the curtain 

 should be lowered from the top of the cage 

 half-way down ; and every precaution taken 

 that prudence can suggest to guard against 

 any of the inmates taking cold. " To be fore- 

 warned is to be forearmed.'' 



Drunkenness. 

 brains. 



Deliberate suicide of the 



THE NATTJEE OF SOUND.— No. III. 



(Continued from page 242 .J 

 Connected with this subject, let 



US NOW DIRECT ATTENTION to the SOUllds 



produced by Insects and Plants. 



The sounds which are caused by In- 

 sects, are not least observable among those 

 which attract our notice when walking 

 abroad : — 



Nor undelightful is the ceaseless hum, 



To him who muses through the woods at noon ; 



Or drowsy shepherd as he lies reclin'd. 



Insects, however, have no organs similar to 

 those of the voice in the other animals ; 

 that is, they never use their voice for the 

 purpose of making sounds. Accordingly, 

 the buzz of flies, the hum of bees, the chirp 

 of crickets, the crink of grasshoppers, the 

 drone of beetles, the whizz of dragon-flies, 

 the song of the cicadse, and the ominous click 

 of the death-watch, are all produced by the 

 wings, or other parts of the insect, either 

 rapidly beating the air, or striking against 

 the parts near them, or on wood, stones, and 

 other sonorous substances. Some of the 

 cicada have a finely contrived drum, whose 

 beating, in the Brazils, may be heard at a 

 mile's distance. 



The variety of sounds produced by plants, 

 are also worthy of observation. The wind, 

 as St. Pierre remarks, produces a different 

 sound, according to the form of the leaves. 

 It whistles in the pine ; trembles in the pop- 

 lar, like the babbling of a brook ; sounds 

 hollow in the oak, in the bamboo like the 

 working of a ship, and in the cinnamon, 

 when full of pods, like the clack of a mill. 



Mr. White, in his very interesting His- 

 tory of Selborne, mentions a singular sound, 

 which cannot be well referred either to plants 

 or animals. It is like the loud audible hum- 

 ming of bees in the air, though not an insect 

 is to be seen. In walking over the highest 

 part of the Downs, he says, on a hot sum- 

 mer day, it would make a person suppose, 

 that a large swarm of bees was in motion, 

 and playing about over his head. In wan- 

 dering among the Swiss Alps, Saussure says, 

 he Avas often awakened from a sublime re- 

 verie, by loud sounds similar to thunder, fol- 

 lowed by long continued roulemens and echoes. 

 These, probably, proceeded from the falling of 

 fragments of rock, and the descent of small 

 avalanches, as the humming mentioned by 

 Mr. White, probably arose either from 

 flights of aerial insects, or from some elec- 

 trical or unknown commotion in the atmos- 

 phere. 



With the acuteness and caution which 

 ever distinguished all his investigations, Dr. 

 Wollaston discovered the very singular fact, 

 that there are many persons who never felt 

 any defect in their hiring, and who yet 



